The decision to put the Leopard 2 tank in production for the German army was made after a study was undertaken, which showed that adopting the Leopard 2 mod would result in a greater combat potential of the German army than producing more Leopard 1A4 tanks or developing an improved version of the Leopard 1A4 with 105/120 mm smoothbore gun, improved armour protection, a new fire control system and a 1,200 horsepower (890 kW) or 1,500 horsepower (1,100 kW) engine. A number of changes was applied to the Leopard 2 design before the series production started. Engine, transmission and suspension were slightly modified and improved. The ballistic protection of turret and hull was improved and weak spots were eliminated. The turret bustle containing the ready ammunition racks and the hydraulic systems was separated from the crew compartment and fitted with blow-out panels. The development of several new components introduced to the Leopard 2 during the Leopard 2AV development and after the US testing was completed. For the series version the Hughes-designed laser rangefinder made with US Common Modules was chosen over the passive EMES-13 rangefinder. The EMES-13 system was considered to be the superior solution, but the Hughes system was cheaper and fully developed.

Most tanks now made from Germany are big fast and have a great cannon but what happens if we go back in time to when Germany ruled by Hitler made them bigger and bigger!

Panzer. II

Spoiler

Development

Not to be confused with the later Ausf. A (the sole difference being the capitalization of the letter A), the Ausf. a was the first version of the Panzer II to be built (albeit in limited numbers), and was subdivided into three sub-variants. The Ausf. a/1 was initially built with a cast idler wheel with rubber tire, but this was replaced after ten production examples with a welded part. The Ausf. a/2 improved engine access problems. The Ausf. a/3 included improved suspension and engine cooling. In general, the specifications for the Ausf. a models was similar, and a total of 75 were produced from May 1936 to February 1937 by Daimler-Benz and MAN. The Ausf. a was considered the 1 Serie under the LaS 100 name.

The Panzer III was intended as the primary battle tank of the German forces. However, when it initially met the KV-1 and T-34 tanks it proved to be inferior in both armour and gun power. To meet the growing need to counter these tanks, the Panzer III was up-gunned with a longer, more powerful 50-millimetre (1.97 in) gun and received more armour but still was at disadvantage compared with the Soviet tank designs. As a result, production of self-propelled guns, as well as the up-gunning of the Panzer IV was initiated.

In 1942, the final version of the Panzer III, the Ausf. N, was created with a 75-millimetre (2.95 in) KwK 37 L/24 cannon, the same short-barreled howitzer-like gun used for theinitial models, of the Panzer IV, a low-velocity gun designed for anti-infantry and close-support work. For defensive purposes, the Ausf. N was equipped with rounds of HEAT ammunition that could penetrate 70 to 100 millimetres (2.76 to 3.94 in) of armour depending on the round's variant, but these were strictly used for self-defence.

Spec's

(Under construction)

Panzer. IV

Spoiler

Development

The Pz.Kpfw. IV's creation, like its predecessor the Pz.Kpfw. III, was devised by Heinz Guderian. He envisioned a support tank to be used to handle anti-tank guns and fortifications. The Panzer IV was to work alongside the more numerable Panzer III in Panzer Divisions (three company of IIIs and one of IVs) to engage the enemy, giving the role of fighting enemy armored forces to the Panzer IIIs. As a support tank, the tank was to have the short 75 mm howitzer as its main armament and have a weight limit of 24 tons. MAN, Krupp, and Rheinmetall-Borsig worked on the development of the tanks, but the Krupp's model was selected for further testing.

The chosen model from Krupp, once finished, used a leaf-spring double-bogie system for its suspension, doing away the proposed interleaved or torsion bar suspension system earlier devised for the sake of faster production. The vehicle held five crew members: the commander, gunner, loader, radio operator (and hull machine gunner), and driver. Though it looked symmetrical, the Panzer IV turret was actually offset to the left of the chassis center line a bit while the engine was also offset to the right. This was to allow the torque shaft to turn the turret. The offset also meant that most of the ammo is held on the right side of the tank in storage areas. The Panzer IV was then accepted into service and production began in 1936.

Spec's

(Under construction)

Pz. Kpfw V (Panther)

Spoiler

Development

​(Under construction)

Panzer. VI (Tiger I and Tiger II)

Spoiler

Tiger I

Development

The Tiger I heavy tank was arguably the most infamous tank of World War II. The design for this tank began as early as January 1937 when Henschel & Sohn worked on a large "breakthrough" called theDurchbruchwagen that weighed about 30 tons on request by the German military. The request was modified over time for more armor and better gun that increased the weight to 36 tons, but this project was dropped in 1938 in favor of the better prototypes VK 30.01(H) and VK 36.01(H). These new prototypes were the start of the usage of the Schachtellaufwerk wheel arrangements, but these also never passed prototype stages and were both cancelled in 1942.

During the development of the prototypes above, the German invasion of France showed that the Allied tanks such as the Somua, Char B1, and MatildaII were impervious to their current anti-tank weaponry and a need for better armored and armed tanks were emphasized. So on May 26, 1941, Henschel and Porsche were asked to submit designs for a 45 ton heavy tank that was to be ready for demonstration by June 1942. During their development, in June 1941, Germany initiated Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union and were shocked by appearance of the t-34 and KV-1 tanks that were invulnerable to all but the most potent anti-tank weapon in German inventory, one of which was the 88 mm FlaK cannon. The potency of the 88 mm cannon against the heavily armored tanks that the Germans faced had Hitler ordered that the heavy tank design undertaken by Henschel and Porsche to utilize the 88 mm as its main armament instead of a 75 mm cannon.

The designs of the tank was finalized and ready for demonstration on April 20, 1942, Hitler's birthday, and showed the VK 45.01(H) and the VK45.01(P). The demonstration and subsequent evaluations on the two designs determined that the Henschel variant was superior to the Porsche variant, proving more reliable, more mobile, and more easily produced than the Porsche. This caused the Henschel variant to be adopted as the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger and production started in August 1942. The Porsche variant had many chassis produced as Ferdinand Porsche thought the design would win, so the chassis were instead used in the Ferdinand tank destroyer.

Spec's

(Under construction)

Tiger II

Variants

(P)

(H)

10,5 cm (H)

(This was never made but blue prints where found of it)

Development

Just before the Tiger I entered service in 1942, work has already begun for its successor. In 1937, Henschel was ordered to develop a heavy tank design, with Porsche following suit in 1939. Porsche developed their new heavy tank off of the failed VK 45.01(P), churning out two models designated VK 4502 (P) named Type 180 and 181. The Type 180 had its turret mounted centrally while 181 had the turret mounted on the rear with the engine in the center (akin to the Ferdinand tank destroyer layout). Both designs used the same components of the VK 4501 (P) and both designs were visually similar except for the turret locations and some mechanical parts, but these two designs never passed wooden prototypes.

Henschel, on the other hand, used a more conventional design in their tank layout, but the end result look no way similar to their previous heavy tank design Tiger I. The VK 4503 (H) as designated by them resembled a Panther tank layout, with the transmission in the front along with the driving compartment, the turret in the center, and the engine in the rear. The design used many components from the Panther and the Panther II in order to standardize production. The suspension system was also different from anything produced at the time, though still using a torsion-bar suspension, the wheels were arranged only in the overlapping method, not interleaving. This new Schachtellaufwerk design simplified maintenance and increased production by using less wheels than interleaved (only 9 each side) and with full-steel wheels that the later Tiger I models used to save rubber. The first wooden mock-up of the design was presented on October 20, 1943 to Hitler, to which it was approved for further development as the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, or just Tiger II and Tiger B for short. The Henschel variant was more advantageous than the Porsche variant for being developed faster and has a faster production rate, thus it was destined to be approved for service. The Henschel design began production in the Henschel plant at Kassal and the first 3 working prototypes were churned out in December 1943. Full-scale production began on January 1944 and continued all the way until March 1945. Due to the late introduction and the amount of resources needed to construct the heavy tanks, only about 482 production models were produced in this time period, considerably less than its predecessor, Tiger I.

Spec's

(Under construction)

More tanks coming soon, like the Tiger's and Germany's super tank ideas! (This time the mouse gets even bigger than the cat!)

Once a great man said, "people do criticize my work but i succeed with there insults that makes me better than who i am"

Plus i did go on wiki and write it in my own words, but my webpage lost connection and all the ones you see "Under construction" plus i did the tiger and the maus but it was lost were gone so i was not bothered to rewrite them all as this topic took a very long time to make!

Id pour in the Tiger I. Whilist being outstanding in terms of deployment of fire effectiveness, accuracy and overall firepower lay out. I do have some mixed feelings upon this tank. One thing is its ammunition storage and its relation to the armor. Sure 100mm of raw near vertical frontal armor will save you from 75mm m3 cannons from the m4 and 76.2mm F34 cannons from the t-34. However once specialized weapons became available such as the high velocity 57s (or the 85mm that was employed later) that the soviet had imployed, 76mm m1s that the US had employed along with the increase of 17 pounder high velocity guns.

Ammo racks become a problem when counting in the tiger. The tank have a horrific amount of storage to house APCBC and HE (and the rare HEAT) ammo on either right above the tracks on the hull, or near the bottom along the turret crew compartment. Id stress the ammo carriage above the tracks being the most in danger as the ammo storage near the bottom may have incoming projectiles stuck on the transmission (though prepare for some transmission fire) from frontal hits (yet the 62mm lower side plates are a green zone to hit). Though this is easily solved by bringing less ammo to clear this rack.

Yet the 100mm frontal near vertical armor strikes again in terms of risk of penetration from closer distance against advanced guns (such as the 85mm s-53 or 76mm m1a2 or others of the closer value) the 85mm being one of the most horrifying when it is able to go through with it having massive HE fillers (even more than the apcbc on the 100mm D-10t of the t54s) that this shell would cause massive spalling to the crew compartment when it has penetrated and may immediately make the tiger combat ineffective within a single shot. Just a bit of word from a guy thats probably been reading too much